jaclaz

Well, according to Microsoft, if you are not on theirs OEM/ENTERPRISE/IT PROFESSIONAL list you are not even allowed to KNOW it exists! Ok, just joking, here is the story: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/program...port/winpe.mspx In plain words, it is not a Public Release, nor you can buy it, unless you qualify for the above. Windows PE is more or less a stripped down version of Windows XP/Server2003 that can run from CD-ROM, it is useful for these uses, mainly: - accessing a dead system - data recovery - data forensics (but there are much better tools) - first install of windows on new PC - make a windows live-CD, like Knoppix or Morphix do for Linux Luckily enough, this wonderful guy, Bart Lagerweij, has found a way to recreate a very similar environment: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ with ordinary files you can have legally. Go to Bart's page above to get everything you need apart your own LICENSED copy of Windows XP/Server 2003. Then, build your 1st basic copy of Bart's PE, play a little with it, and come back to this forum to learn how you can better, fine tune and customize it. Hope the above clears the matter, please correct me where I am wrong. jaclaz

I see, the problem it's this, as you don't want ANY 3rd party bootmanager, the partition can be seen by "NORMAL" Windows XP: a DOS parttition, to be bootable, MUST be : A) ACTIVE B) the 1st partition on the 1st hard drive So you can partition your drive with a small PRYMARY FAT16 partition and one (or more) huge partitions (either FAT32 or NTFS), which actually is the way that Gilles Vollant, author of bootpart, recommends and that I have used for years without any trouble: "C :" FAT 16 PRIMARY on which resides: MSDOS.SYS IO.SYS COMMAND.COM BOOT.INI NTLDR NTDETECT.COM Autoexec.bat config.sys Ghost.exe ...all other imaging/rescue programs, including BOOTPART boot.ini has two entries: C:\BOOTSECT.DOS="Reimage Drive" multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows XP Professional" [followed by any switch you might use] Rest of the disk is a big EXTENDED parttion in which you have at least one FAT32/NTFS partition "D :" to which you install Windows XP 2) If you want a REAL recovery partition, i.e. that is normally HIDDEN, you need to find a way to HIDE/UNHIDE it at will, which means that you need a 3rd party bootmanager. I do recommend you XOSL, which you can find on Ranish's page and that is: -FREEWARE -GRAPHICAL -PASSWORD PROTECTED if needed jaclaz

A few ideas: ZMATRIX http://zmatrix.sourceforge.net/ A matrix like font (for messages, windows titles, or whatever): http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=2555 A small animated gif: http://www.deviantart.com/view/6656561/ should you want it to use it in your phone too! jaclaz

Sorry, I don't get it: if you want to create a "recovery" partition on a HARD DRIVE, you should use a program like Ranish's Partition Manager, http://www.ranish.com/part/ if you want to create a bootable CD option, you can make an Image of a bootable FLOPPY with autoexec.bat and ghost.exe or whatever, and add it to whatever bootcd menu you use. BOOTPART is a program that helps in the creating/modifying of boot.ini, and optionally can create bootsectors for various OS's, it does nothing to PARTITIONS. Please post again explaining better what you want to achieve. jaclaz

As you might know, there is this Virtual Disk Driver from Ken Kato: http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vdk.html that allows to mount to a Drive letter, Disk Image files made with VMWare, plus a few more types. The driver is a real must have for anyone using VMWare Disk Image files, but being command-line only it is sometimes awkward to use. I just wrote Virtual Drive Manager, a GUI interface to the driver that makes its use much simpler. It is version 0.9 Beta now. I would like to have comments, suggestions, bug reports from VMWare users. You can find Virtual Drive Manager here: http://home.graffiti.net/jaclaz:graffiti.n...ts/VDM/vdm.html jaclaz

... or you could Dynamically find the Letter assigned to cd-rom drive in the Registry, using something like this: :: For Windows 2000/XP SETLOCAL SET CDROMS= ::Following tempfilenames are just arbitrary SET Temp1=%Temp%.\tempcd1.$$$ SET Temp2=%Temp%.\tempcd2.$$$ START /WAIT REGEDIT /E %Temp1% "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices" TYPE %Temp1% > %Temp2% TYPE %Temp2% | FIND "\\DosDevices\\" | FIND /V "\\DosDevices\\A:" | FIND "=hex:5c," > %Temp1% FOR /F "tokens=3 delims=\:" %%A IN (%Temp1%) DO CALL :ParseW2K %%A SET CDROMS DEL %Temp1% DEL %Temp2% ENDLOCAL & SET CDROMS=%CDROMS% GOTO:EOF :ParseW2K IF DEFINED CDROMS (SET CDROMS=%CDROMS%,%1:) ELSE (SET CDROMS=%1:) GOTO:EOF found on this excellent batch file page, slightly edited to make it simpler: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/amb_cdrom.html#CdRom2 http://www.robvanderwoude.com jaclaz

Well, Bochs is not really a Virtual Machine, but rather an Emulator. i.e. Virtual Machines, like VMWare or Connectix/Microsoft Virtual PC, simulate an actual "Hardware PC", you see the boot screen, you actually install a video card driver for the hardware it simulates, and so on. Bochs is more like a software layer. Hope the above makes some sense, however fact is that BOCHS is really slow. If you plan to run on the virtual machine a simple OS, like DOS, and you have an average PC, it is ok, if you want to run WinXP inside the virtual thingy, you better get yourself either VMWARE or VIRTUAL PC. (I prefer the first over the latter, but it's just personal). Before buying either, try Virtual PC, there is a downloadable time limited version. If you want to have a try with BOCHS, why don't you try with REACTOS, http://www.reactos.com/ If you want to run DOS in an emulator, try also DOSBOX, http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/ though it has been developed for games, quite a lot of software runs in it. jaclaz

I don't know if this is what you want, but this is how I resolved the problem the "third" way. I simply put aside M$ own RAMDRIVE.SYS, replacing it with Franck Uberto's XMSDSK.EXE. (you can find it everywhere on the net as furd19u_i.zip) The good things are: 1) no 32 Mb limit in Ramdisk size 2) possibility to assign a letter from command line This way I don't need to find which drive letter, I just map it to R: and go on. Hope the above helps. jaclaz

Yes it is quite a complex thing, maybe this example, taken from Rob van der Woude excellent site helps in clarifying the matter: Finally, support for delayed environment variable expansion has been added. This support is always disabled by default, but may be enabled/disabled via the /V command line switch to CMD.EXE. See CMD /? Delayed environment variable expansion is useful for getting around the limitations of the current expansion which happens when a line of text is read, not when it is executed. The following example demonstrates the problem with immediate variable expansion: set VAR=before if "%VAR%" == "before" ( set VAR=after; if "%VAR%" == "after" @echo If you see this, it worked ) would never display the message, since the %VAR% in BOTH IF statements is substituted when the first IF statement is read, since it logically includes the body of the IF, which is a compound statement. So the IF inside the compound statement is really comparing "before" with "after" which will never be equal. Similarly, the following example will not work as expected: set LIST= for %i in (*) do set LIST=%LIST% %i echo %LIST% in that it will NOT build up a list of files in the current directory, but instead will just set the LIST variable to the last file found. Again, this is because the %LIST% is expanded just once when the FOR statement is read, and at that time the LIST variable is empty. So the actual FOR loop we are executing is: for %i in (*) do set LIST= %i which just keeps setting LIST to the last file found. Delayed environment variable expansion allows you to use a different character (the exclamation mark) to expand environment variables at execution time. If delayed variable expansion is enabled, the above examples could be written as follows to work as intended: set VAR=before if "%VAR%" == "before" ( set VAR=after if "!VAR!" == "after" @echo If you see this, it worked ) set LIST= for %i in (*) do set LIST=!LIST! %i echo %LIST% see http://www.robvanderwoude.com/index.html for more jaclaz

I feel like thinking that roy1984 was more looking for this: Disable the Ability to Right Click on the Desktop (All Windows) This tweak removes the context menu that would normally appear when the user right clicks on the desktop or in the Explorer right results pane. Open your registry and find or create the key below. Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called "NoViewContextMenu" and set it according to the value data below. Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect. Registry Settings User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ Explorer] System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ Explorer] Value Name: NoViewContextMenu Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value) Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled) found here: http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/160/ jaclaz

Well, Ranish likes to play it safe, he had for something like one year version 2.38 Beta, then he just renamed it to 2.40 stable. I have used both 2.40 and 2.43 beta with no problems whatsoever, actually the only (I think) difference, it is the number of partitions: Version 2.37: can help you have 30 primary partitions but does not work with disks having a capacity greater than 8GB. Version 2.40: can work with disks > 8GB but does not support more than 4 primary partitions (this is same as version 2.38 but just the version number got changed) Version 2.43: can work with disks > 8GB; also, it can support up to 30 primary partitions. As I would never want to have more than 4 Primary Partitions, I stay on 2.40. Never tested 2.44 BETA-BETA-BETA jaclaz

Try FONTTWISTER: http://www.neuber.com/twister/index.html jaclaz

It looks like you have a problem here: %RAMD%:\extract /y /e /l %RAMD%: ebd.cab > NUL it looks like RAMD is empty, make sure that BEFORE you assign a drive leteer to RAMD, like this: SET RAMD=X: then, I think you have a problem with "\" and ":" If RAMD = something like X: you do not need the : If RAMD = something like X:\ you do not need the \ If RAMD = something like X you miss a \ in the second part. Moreover I do not think that EXTRACT.EXE is ALREADY on RAMD! Assumed that RAMD is something like X your line should be: extract /y /e /l %RAMD%:\ebd.cab > NUL jaclaz

Get this nifty FREEWARE: RANISH PARTITION MANAGER http://www.ranish.com/part/ READ THE INSTRUCTIONS USE IT PROBLEM SOLVED (please note that Powerquest Partition Manager, in a few occasions, deals with partitions in non-standard ways, so, even if all works with it, double check the settings of the partitions with Ranish's) jaclaz

To make it safe, you should always run the command like this: xcopy32 [source]:\*.* [destination]\*.* /i /s /e /r /v /k /f /c /h or xcopy32 [source]:\*.* [destination]\*.* /i /s /e /r /v /k /f /c /h /y if you don't have it in your COPYCMD Note: Xcopy is just a redirection to XCOPY32 /s and /e could be condensed in just /e, but as Nick Rage put it, We even made it easy to remember.. I SERVe Kentucky Fried Chicken Hot! or I SERVe Kentucky Fried Chicken Hot, Yeah! jaclaz

Actually, it is possible to recover data even on encrypted partitions, but it will cost you: http://www.elcomsoft.com/prs.html#aefsdr jaclaz

Easier way is to use Franck Uberto's RAMDISK. At boot you just need the basic Dos files and a config.sys/autoexec.bat that creates the RAMDISK, then you copy all Dos files to RAMDISK, not unlike a "normal" 98 boot diskette does. Frank Uberto's is better because you do not have the limit in size of the MS RAMDISK, 32 Mb. You can even, with some caveats, run Windows 3.11, 95, 98 or ME from RAMDISK. Find here some useful info: http://www.geocities.com/politalk/rmdrv/index.html jaclaz

@SiMoNsAyS Well, no, the copywriter Mikio or Mikko seems having had a lack of fantasy, it's the same thing over and over: 1J) Kan Co Co to ne jo e jo ko so=1E)Welcome to Japan and Korea 2J) Ganbareh=2E)Go ahead, and have lots of fun! 3J)Wa ure cap udi sen di ne Sens egarega ni hon to can co=3E)The World Cup 2002 is right now and so the whole world is watching Japan and Korea ...and then it goes on 2) 2) 3) 2) 2) 2) 3) 2) 2) jaclaz

It is japanese, Ganbareh means either: "Go Out and Play" or "Go ahead, and have lots of fun!" See info here: http://users.pandora.be/gertje1/disc.bak and a possible translation here: http://www.planetsash.co.uk/Low/Low/Transl...Translation.htm jaclaz

You might want to have a look at 7zip, it is quite compact and easily modifiable: http://www.7-zip.org/ it does not actually need to be installed, all libraries you do not need can be deleted, writes very little info to the registry when run. jaclaz

Most probably you were looking for this info: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...&NoWebContent=1 and this might be useful too: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=227707 In your case it should go like this: Disk 1: 1st primary <-if ACTIVE gets letter C: 2nd primary <-this one is ignored, or skipped, then assigned J: (but not always, depends on which system/which filesystem) 1st logical <-this one is skipped at first pass, then becomes E: Disk 2: 1st primary <-gets letter D: 1st, 2nd, 3rd 4th logical <-these are skipped at first pass, then become F:,G:,H:,I: CD1 (DVD); <-finally gets letter J: or K: (see above) CD2 (CD-RW); <-finally gets letter K: or L: (see above) It is NOT RECOMMENDED to have more than one PRIMARY partition visible to NT/2K/XP. Moreover, the best thing is to plan the partitioning so that Dos/Windows and NT/2K/XP give the same letters to the same drives. Hope the above helps. jaclaz

My two cents: if you just want to give a "windows look" to an installer program you already have written as .bat or .cmd, have a look at this little nifty tool: http://wizapp.sourceforge.net/ I have found it very easy to convert existing batches in "pseudo" windows apps. The .exe is only 70 kb. jaclaz

Well, it seems that the idea of having two mice is not new, but of course there are reasons why you should NEVER have two mice together: jaclaz

Yep. lpl is right, What nodiaque should have posted is, presumably, this: C, 1, 20 Gigs PRIMARY D, 1, 100 Gigs LOGICAL E, 2, 40 Gigs PRIMARY F, 3, 160 Gigs LOGICAL Any DOS/WINDOWS adopts this convention, (as you might know, no MS kind of FDISK allows you to make more than one primary partition per each disk): Letter A: is reserved for first floppy Letter B: is reserved for second floppy Letter C: is reserved for first PRIMARY partition on first drive Subsequent letters are given to all other PRIMARY partitions in the order of the number of the drive. When all PRIMARY partitions have got their letters assigned, lettering restarts from first LOGICAL partition on first drive and goes on like above. The solutions to your problem could be to convert the PRIMARY partitions on second drive to LOGICAL. This COULD be made with Partition Magic, but there are reports of people LOOSING DATA in the process, so I would rather MAKE A FULL BACKUP OF DATA before attempting to do it. As a general rule, one must plan the partitioning of disks in a manner that letter assigning, at least for the partitions where system files reside, is the same as the automatic given one. jaclaz

@Aaron as correctly pointed out by Alanoll, there is this little (22kb) standalone utility that can manage shortcuts and much more: NirComLine v1.20 Copyright © 2003 Nir Sofer NIRCOMLINE.EXE shortcut [filename] [folder] [shortcut title] {arguments} {icon file} {icon resource number} {ShowCmd} {Start In Folder} Creates a shortcut to a file. The parameters: [filename]: Create a shortcut to this filename. [folder]: Specify that destination folder that inside it the shortcut will be created. You can specify any valid folder (like "c:\temp\1234") or one of the following special folder values: /desktop - Creates the shortcut in the user desktop folder. /startup - Creates the shortcut in the user startup folder. /programs - Creates the shortcut in the user start menu\programs folder. /start_menu - Creates the shortcut in the user start menu folder /common_desktop - Creates the shortcut in the desktop folder of all users. /common_startup - Creates the shortcut in the startup folder of all users. /common_programs - Creates the shortcut in the start menu\programs folder of all users. /common_start_menu - Creates the shortcut in the start menu folder of all users [shortcut title]: The text displayed in the shortcut. {arguments}: Optional parameter - Additional arguments to execute the filename. {icon file}: Optional parameter - Use this parameter if your want that the shortcut will be displayed with icon other than the default one. {icon resource number}: Optional parameter - The resource number inside the icon file. {ShowCmd}: Optional parameter - Use this parameter if you want to maximize or minimize the window of the program. Specify "max" to maximize the window or "min" to minimize it. {Start In Folder}: Optional parameter - Specifies the "Start In" folder. If you don't specify this parameter, the "Start In" folder is automatically filled with the folder of the program you specify in [filename] parameter. Examples: shortcut "f:\winnt\system32\calc.exe" /desktop "Windows Calculator" shortcut "f:\Program Files\KaZaA\Kazaa.exe" "c:\temp\MyShortcuts" "Kazaa" shortcut "f:\Program Files" "c:\temp\MyShortcuts" "Program Files Folder" "" "f:\winnt\system32\shell32.dll" 45 shortcut "f:\Program Files" "c:\temp\MyShortcuts" "Program Files Folder" "" "" "" "max" that you can find here: http://nirsoft.multiservers.com/ jaclaz